Joe McKeehen and Jordan Cristos Slam Recent Poker Innovations

Two professional poker players, including the current WSOP Main Event champion, have been making waves in the poker world after criticizing the way in which tournaments are being adapted to suit changing demands. Furthermore, both Joe McKeehen and Jordan Cristos seem to be letting their imaginations run wild as to who has helped instigate the various changes, with the former blaming the media, and the latter believing Daniel Negreanu and Mike Sexton may have had a hand in the matter.
While Joe McKeehen has reacted badly to the WSOP’s decision to begin its individual events an hour earlier than their traditional starting times, Jordan Cristos, on the other hand, is incensed by the WPT choosing to introduce a time-bank concept to its tournaments in order to speed up the action.
Both players have also been expressing their disaproval regarding the innovations in the least diplomatic terms possible. Joe McKeehen, for instance, has accused the media of wielding undue influence on decisions, dumping on the players, and turning the players into “slaves” of the WSOP, while, Jordan Cristos, a player with $1,422,758 in live career earnings, said that he was considering stalling all his poker decisions to the 30-second mark during the WPT TOC event, just to make a point. As Cristos tweeted:
“sometimes takes 20-30 seconds to get a good count on opponents stack before making decisions. So disrespectful.”
Nevertheless, the players’ comments and views seem to have caused a backlash amongst both players and the media alike. Respected pro Jason Mercier, for instance, tweeted the following message to McKeehen:
“Yo @dude904 @CardPlayerMedia … The Wsop is not an event set up to provide income for pro poker players. If you don’t wanna play- stay home.”
In the meantime, Jordan Cristos can also expect some pretty heated exchanges with some of his fellow competitors if he does decides to go through with his threat to slow down the upcoming WPT Monster Tournament of Champions (TOC) on April 22.